[scribus] Quotes.

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 10:54:51 -0700
Joe Zeff <joe at zeff.us> dijo:

>On 08/06/2011 10:23 AM, John Ghormley KJ4UFG wrote:
>> I suppose if you want quote marks that curve from the top in toward
>> the quote on both ends there is more than one keystroke on each end
>> involved.  I totally eschew those marks as tedious and a bit old
>> fashioned, but to each his own.  Using them would slightly
>> complicate the matter by adding two more keystrokes.
>
>Yes.  That's what smart quotes, AKA "curly quotes" are.  Some people 
>like them, you don't.  The OP wasn't suggesting that Scribus convert
>all quotation marks to them, but that they be an option.  It occurs to
>me that it might be best to make them a part of paragraph styles, so
>that it happens automatically, without extra keystrokes, but only if
>you specify that you want them.  Personally, I'd have little if any
>need for them, but I see no reason not to have them available for
>those who like them.

This has been discussed on this list in the past. The conclusion is
that it is not a trivial matter. Let me give you examples from English:

1) In the U.S. it is de rigeur to enclose a period or comma within the
ending quote. Some Canadians do as well, but it is unusual elsewhere:

	Those are called "smart quotes." (U.S.)
	Those are called "smart quotes". (elsewhere)

2) In North America nested quotes are reversed from elsewhere:

	"What do you mean, 'smart quotes'?" he asked. (N.A.)
	'What do you mean, "smart quotes"?' he asked. (elsewhere)

3) Contractions always use a single end quote, but sometimes the quote
begins the word:

	Don't tell me you want smart quotes! (single ending quote)
	'Twas the night before Christmas. (single ending quote)

So you can see that things are not as uniform as they might at first
glance appear. Now add the fact that Scribus users are all over the
world and using it for many languages. I can't think of two languages
whose quoting system is the same. Plus, like English, many languages
have alternate systems.

My solution is to do my writing in OOo, which already has the best
smart quote system that I think is possible. It still messes up with
'twas and 'tis, so I made autocorrect entries for those.